AirNav Systems Forum

AirNav Radar => AirNav Radar Discussion => Topic started by: Ericw on May 24, 2009, 05:50:05 PM

Title: another Mode S question
Post by: Ericw on May 24, 2009, 05:50:05 PM
Hi all, I am a brand new user and just got my radarbox up and running.
Some entrys on the screen only show a ModeS field, all else is blank.  What does this mean, and is there any way to get more info on that particular aircraft?

Incidently, the computer on which I am using Radarbox is not connected to the Internet.  I hope to get it connected at some point soon as I am sure that will allow me to get a lot more info.

Thanks very much.

Eric 
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: Brian on May 24, 2009, 06:31:57 PM
One of the few places you can get more information from is.
Just write down the Mode-S address and look it up on a computer that is connected to the internet.

Gatwick Aviation Society (GAS).
http://www.gatwickaviationsociety.org.uk/modeslookup.asp


AIRFRAMES.ORG - Aircraft Database
http://www.airframes.org

Once your RadarBox computer you are using.  It will be able to pull information from AirNav RadarBox Data Server.  It then will fill the 'blanks' for that aircraft. If available from the database server.

You can read the database FAQ on how it works with the RadarBox.

FAQ Topic: Where does the aircraft registration data come from? http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=2688.0
Title: Re: another Mode S question / database update
Post by: Ericw on May 24, 2009, 10:31:02 PM
Thanks Brian, this is very helpful.  Since using it for the last day or so and reading up on the site, I am starting to get the hang of things.

As I am using Radarbox on a computer that is not on the internet, and the database that the program is running off of is just whatever was on the CD that came with the unit, is there any way to manually update the database of aircraft?  ie: manually download the file on an internet computer and then copy it to my radarbox pc?

Thanks for all your help.

Eric
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: tarbat on May 25, 2009, 08:12:22 AM
Thats possible, but the main Navdata database is BIG.  Mines over 13mb, and even when zipped its over 4mb.  The other problem is that my database contains aircraft that are relevant to my location, so may not be of much use where you are.  What's your location?

If someone knows where I can host a 4mb file for download, I'll happily share my navdata database.

EDIT: If you just want an extract of aircraft details only, I have a recent file of my 30,000+ aircraft database as a CSV file, which you could import into your Navdata database.  Its at http://www.tarbat.gofreeserve.com/aircraft.zip
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: Allocator on May 25, 2009, 08:15:06 AM
Eric,

There isn't a file you can easily download from the Internet to update your RadarBox database.  You can manually update single records, but really this isn't a practical option for a large number of aircraft.  You do get so much more out of Radarbox if you run it on a PC connected to the Internet, especially the Network function where you can see everybody else's aircraft as well as your own.
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: Ericw on May 25, 2009, 03:38:42 PM

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful.  I will just proceed with getting the computer on line.  The problem is that I don't have a wireless network, and the antenna cord is somewhat short in relation to the placement of my network hardware & connections.  So I will probably look into getting an extension cable for the antenna, which I'm sure is a whole separate subject that I can read up about on the forum (though any links would be great ;)
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: nortonbeak on May 25, 2009, 04:29:53 PM
Quote from: Ericw on May 25, 2009, 03:38:42 PM
the antenna cord is somewhat short in relation to the placement of my network hardware & connections.  So I will probably look into getting an extension cable for the antenna, which I'm sure is a whole separate subject that I can read up about on the forum (though any links would be great ;)


You may be better off extending the USB connection instead of the antenna cable.

Don't get too long an  extension because that may cause the power to drop out occasionally.
Title: Re: another Mode S question
Post by: malc41 on May 27, 2009, 08:51:18 AM
How very true

see this post
http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=2723.msg23936#msg23936